A thorough, detailed, and perfectly clear presentation of the reasoning behind the daylight bombing of Germany. The aim was to destroy Germany's industrial plants and make it impossible for them to wage war.
Let me get something out of the way first. This is a war-time morale booster (1944) and it's sometimes misleading. For one thing, the Germans quickly learned to disperse their factories and build separate airplane parts in smaller plants, making it more difficult to interfere with production. For another, the narration claims that the bombing had reduced fighter production by 37% and, if kept up, the results would be a predictable zero. It didn't work that way. By the end of the war, Hitler's Minister of Armaments, Albert Speer, had a surplus of brand new fighters lined up, with no men to fly them and no fuel to run them. Germany's manpower was limited. The country is the size of Missouri. And the Russians had taken control of the oil in the east. The Germans knew all about the Norden bombsight. The rest of the program is grounded and is more of a factual record.
With that out of the way, let me say that this is a superior documentary produced by the Army Air Force describing a complicated mission of several heavy bombers over Germany. None of the performers can act. That's because they are not actors but real personnel carrying out a real mission.
There is no concentration on a single bomber or crew. No individual stands out from the collective. You won't be introduced to the bombardier with some précis like: "Here is your bombardier. Robert Maeder from Sag Harbor, New York. Everybody calls him Moose. Back home he was a watchmaker. Nice guy. This is the navigator, Henry ("Hockey") Anderson. Precision is his strong suit. Toots a horn in his time off."
Everything is covered. The briefings alone last for about half an hour and you've seen them before but never so pregnant with apparent precision. Ordinarily in a feature film like, say, "Twelve O'Clock High," the brief consists of some officer on a stage whisking back a curtain that shows today's route and targets. (Groans from the assembled air crew.) In this production we learn what has gone on before the curtain is drawn away. Of course it takes longer but I found it fascinating.
The bombers shown are B-24 Liberators and B-17 Flying Fortresses, mainly the latter, probably because they were first in action over Europe and probably because with their wide wings and long tubular fuselage they were perhaps the most graceful of the genre. The B-24 was faster, had longer range, and carried a slightly greater bomb load but it never was awarded the affection of the B-17. The Liberator was spacious (I flew in a modified version) but pretty ugly in flight. The Germans nicknamed them "furniture vans."
It took only three men to get the airplane to its targets and do the job -- the pilot, the navigator, and the bombardier. The copilot was for redundancy. The rest of the crew, six men, were there for defense. There is a detailed description of the configuration of bombers in flight -- elements, wings, groups, echelons, high, low, and so forth. You may get lost. I know I did. But not all details are equally important and you can safely skip these.
If you're looking for a lot of combat footage filled with wisecracks, this is the wrong place. It's dramatic value is built into, and evolves from, the protocol surrounding the mission.
Let me get something out of the way first. This is a war-time morale booster (1944) and it's sometimes misleading. For one thing, the Germans quickly learned to disperse their factories and build separate airplane parts in smaller plants, making it more difficult to interfere with production. For another, the narration claims that the bombing had reduced fighter production by 37% and, if kept up, the results would be a predictable zero. It didn't work that way. By the end of the war, Hitler's Minister of Armaments, Albert Speer, had a surplus of brand new fighters lined up, with no men to fly them and no fuel to run them. Germany's manpower was limited. The country is the size of Missouri. And the Russians had taken control of the oil in the east. The Germans knew all about the Norden bombsight. The rest of the program is grounded and is more of a factual record.
With that out of the way, let me say that this is a superior documentary produced by the Army Air Force describing a complicated mission of several heavy bombers over Germany. None of the performers can act. That's because they are not actors but real personnel carrying out a real mission.
There is no concentration on a single bomber or crew. No individual stands out from the collective. You won't be introduced to the bombardier with some précis like: "Here is your bombardier. Robert Maeder from Sag Harbor, New York. Everybody calls him Moose. Back home he was a watchmaker. Nice guy. This is the navigator, Henry ("Hockey") Anderson. Precision is his strong suit. Toots a horn in his time off."
Everything is covered. The briefings alone last for about half an hour and you've seen them before but never so pregnant with apparent precision. Ordinarily in a feature film like, say, "Twelve O'Clock High," the brief consists of some officer on a stage whisking back a curtain that shows today's route and targets. (Groans from the assembled air crew.) In this production we learn what has gone on before the curtain is drawn away. Of course it takes longer but I found it fascinating.
The bombers shown are B-24 Liberators and B-17 Flying Fortresses, mainly the latter, probably because they were first in action over Europe and probably because with their wide wings and long tubular fuselage they were perhaps the most graceful of the genre. The B-24 was faster, had longer range, and carried a slightly greater bomb load but it never was awarded the affection of the B-17. The Liberator was spacious (I flew in a modified version) but pretty ugly in flight. The Germans nicknamed them "furniture vans."
It took only three men to get the airplane to its targets and do the job -- the pilot, the navigator, and the bombardier. The copilot was for redundancy. The rest of the crew, six men, were there for defense. There is a detailed description of the configuration of bombers in flight -- elements, wings, groups, echelons, high, low, and so forth. You may get lost. I know I did. But not all details are equally important and you can safely skip these.
If you're looking for a lot of combat footage filled with wisecracks, this is the wrong place. It's dramatic value is built into, and evolves from, the protocol surrounding the mission.
